(Almost) Spring News and Updates
Hey hey. Thanks for signing up. Shall we do this thing while we wait for jean jacket weather and flowers?
Nice Things About Back Talk*
Just a review in this little publication called The New York Times. By the brilliant Carmen Maria Machado. Here's a taste, but Machado's brain at work is a sight to behold, and you should read the whole thing yourself and then go buy** all the books recommended in the new female vanguard piece that's also in this all-women's issue of the Book Review:
"Although Lazarin’s work has the tone and style of traditional mainstream short fiction, it joins a growing canon of quietly realist stories that establish women’s experiences as worthy of literary attention. And not just women’s experiences: These stories also explore the exhausting, slow poison of masculine power, the grind of the patriarchy on even the most privileged of women, the subtle ways in which men have trained women to minimize themselves."
I talk about my "sanity shelf" of books and that one time Otis*** ate my Kindle over at Girls At Library. There's shots of beautiful artwork created by my kids (thanks Scribble Art Workshop), Brian Herrick, and Natasha Hesketh, not to mention Gisele Freund. And a goat hammer, which I did not get by buying a sack of flour from a farmer.
*If you want to see more like this, like the time NYMag called the book "Highbrow Brilliant" or when a poet compared me to the goddess Alice Munro in the San Francisco Chronicle (poets get me), it's all compiled on this page here aka the center of my ego. **I'm assuming you've already bought my book. Buy one for a friend, perhaps, who needs to read more women? ***Otis is a dog, now known on the internet as my "anxious dog" which is true. In his 12 plus years, he's destroyed two remotes, a down couch, multiple pairs of brand new children's shoes (the hand-me-downs don't smell as good, I guess), amongst other objects. Lately he steals bread from the counter, especially if it's cinnamon bread.
Using My Words
I enjoyed writing this essay about talking on the phone for Lenny Letter almost as much as I love phone calls with friends who are far away. It also gave me the idea for how to title this thing. We just got a home phone again, and I'm going to have to teach my kids how to dial.
Reading, Thinking, Feeling
This Atlas Obscura piece on the Bagel Bakers Union, Local 338. Also, while we're talking Jews and nostalgia, this essay destroyed me. You are going to need this when you are done. Also to watch Dirty Dancing again. It holds up. I know. I've only seen it about 218 times.
Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers, out in June. One of the perks of being a writer is getting access to books early, and then all of us can run our big mouths about why you should buy it. (Pre-order. It saves a writer's life.) This one's about friends living and loving and salvaging one another during the AIDS crisis in Chicago, and disappearing, and reappearing. Makkai's one of those writers with a perspective that covers half-centuries, but you don't even realize she's taking you through so much time because it's so effortless and immediate and time collapses, as it often does for the characters in this book, who I think you will love as I much I did.
Blair Braverman's Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube about dogsledding and existing in a female body and finding your way to yourself in places no one else expects to find you. And being really really cold. This is a book I'll be making sure my girls read once they're old enough. Braverman has one of the best Twitter feeds going. If you like dogs and you like humanity, you should follow her there. Even if you just like dogs, who are often better behaved than humanity. (Not Otis, obviously.)
I took Twitter off my phone for March, and I hate it. I bought a salt lamp and I love it.
Where to Find Me
I'll be teaching an 8-week fiction class, How to Build A Short Story, at Catapult in New York City, starting April 11th. Great for all levels. Send your smart friends to invent imaginary friends (or enemies; enemies make for good stories). As of today, there's just one spot left. Whoops, my class sold out. If they're nice to me, maybe I'll do it again.
April 22nd: KGB Bar Reading with Xhenet Aliu (have you read BRASS yet? Go read BRASS. Go. Scram. Get on it.)
May 17th: Reading at Freya Project at Elsa in Brooklyn (fundraiser in support of Nile Sisters)
May 20th: Reading at Sunday Salon at Von Bar in Manhattan
That's it for now.
Talk soon,
Danielle